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Summary

Contemporary public policy assumes that the achievement gap between black and white students could be closed if only schools would do a better job. According to Richard Rothstein, "Closing the gaps between lower-class and middle-class children requires social and economic reform as well as school improvement. Unfortunately, the trend is to shift most of the burden to schools, as if they alone can eradicate poverty and inequality." In this book, Rothstein points the way toward social and economic reforms that would give all children a more equal chance to succeed in school. This book features: a summary of numerous studies linking school achievement to health care quality, nutrition, childrearing styles, housing stability, parental economic security, and more ; aA look at erroneous and misleading data that underlie commonplace claims that some schools "beat the demographic odds and therefore any school can close the achievement gap if only it adopted proper practices." ; and an analysis of how the over-emphasis of standardized tests in federal law obscures the true achievement gap and makes narrowing it more difficult.

Author Biography

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a visiting lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Prefaces

Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute

ix

Arthur E. Levine, Teachers College

x

Introduction

1

(12)

Social class, student achievement, and the black-white achievement gap

13

(48)

The legacy of the Coleman report

13

(1)

Some common misunderstandings about the gap

14

(3)

Genetic influences

17

(2)

Social class differences in childrearing

19

(14)

Cultural influences on achievement, and black underachievement

33

(4)

Health differences and school performance

37

(9)

Housing and student mobility

46

(1)

Social class differences between blacks and whites with similar incomes

47

(4)

Does culture or social class explain the black-white achievement gap?

51

(5)

Summer and after-school learning

56

(5)

Schools that `beat the demographic odds'

61

(24)

The success of some poor children doesn't mean that poverty doesn't matter

61

(2)

Dr. William Sanders and the Tennessee value-added assessment system

63

(8)

The Heritage Foundation's `no excuses' schools

71

(4)

The Education Trust's `high-flying' schools

75

(1)

`90/90/90' schools, and Boston's Mather School

76

(2)

Pentagon schools

78

(1)

Rafe Esquith, KIPP, and affirmative action programs like AVID

79

(6)

Standardized testing and cognitive skills

85

(10)

Standardized tests' imperfect description of the gap

85

(1)

Defining proficiency

86

(4)

Alignment of tests, standards, and instruction

90

(3)

The inaccuracy of tests that hold schools accountable for closing the gap

93

(2)

The social class gap in non-cognitive skills

95

(34)

The goals of education, including non-cognitive goals

95

(4)

The anti-social score gap

99

(4)

Affirmative action's evidence of leadership: Bowen-Bok and the `four percenters'

103

(4)

Persistence in school, self-confidence, and adult earnings

107

(6)

Complementing school curricula with civil rights enforcement

113

(2)

Testing integrity, personality, and employability

115

(2)

Civic and democratic participation

117

(6)

Perry Preschool, Head Start, and Project STAR

123

(4)

Comparing school and social reform to improve cognitive and non-cognitive skills